


A Night of the Thief in a Dress

by EthelPhantom



Series: Ethel's Maribat March 2020 [4]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe - Thieves, Attempt at Humor, Because this is totally going to become a fully developed story, Crime Fighting, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Damnit, F/M, Gen, In which Marinette is a thief, MariBat, Maribat March, Prologue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-05
Updated: 2020-03-05
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:40:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23031082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EthelPhantom/pseuds/EthelPhantom
Summary: Maribat March 2020, day 6: Unconventional WeaponHe had been chasing the new thief for weeks. As both NightwingandOfficer Grayson. Yet, she managed to escape his grasp. Every. Single. Time.He had no idea how she did it.
Relationships: Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug/Dick Grayson
Series: Ethel's Maribat March 2020 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1650745
Comments: 24
Kudos: 370
Collections: Maribat March





	A Night of the Thief in a Dress

**Author's Note:**

> I'm back with a new AU that I'm actually going to fully write at some point. This is kind of the prologue for the story. I hope you'll like it?

He had been chasing the new thief for  _ weeks.  _ As both Nightwing  _ and  _ Officer Grayson. Yet, she managed to escape his grasp. _ Every. Single. Time.  _

He had no idea how she did it.

No one knew who she was, how old she was, where she was from, her motives,  _ anything.  _ No one knew anything about her. People weren’t even completely sure what she looked like as she always managed to avoid the security cameras, and no one ever got a look good enough to be able to describe her, even. The only thing they were rather sure about was that there was something not natural about her, partly because she fought in a dress and had wings (that she barely ever used, for some reason.) It also shouldn’t be too hard to find someone who had  _ wings _ in even Gotham, but nope. Nothing.

Also. She used a  _ yoyo _ to get to places. A  _ yoyo.  _ That should not have been possible by all laws of physics and logic, especially not without ever destroying anything, but she did it anyway. Dick was rather certain she would also be able to use it as a weapon, but she never did. The one time he’d gotten close enough to her as Nightwing to ask about it, she had simply replied with “the others would not be too happy with me using it for this.” It had made no sense. Who were the others?

Yeah, that was right. He never did get close enough to her as Nightwing. No vigilante other than Red Hood did, and Jason wasn’t willing to tell them anything about her. They weren’t sure whether it was blackmail or some sort of an alliance.

This time though, he got close. Closer than ever before — close enough to fight. He pulled out his escrima sticks. She had nothing to fight with, only her superstrength and superpowers (because clearly she had those, there was no way she wasn’t a meta with enhanced abilities at the very least), but she did put up a good fight anyway. Nightwing avoided hitting any critical points for now as she hadn’t made herself dangerous yet. So, he aimed his hits at her arms and legs, sometimes when he had an easy way to strike her in her knees, that was what he went for.

She did not waver. She didn’t even seem to show his strikes affected her.

And then she produced a hand mirror from somewhere and used it to reflect light (and where did the light even come from?) straight to his eyes, momentarily blinding him. Then he heard something shatter and had to get his sight clear as soon as possible. He was barely in time to react before she lashed out and hit him with a fragment of the now shattered mirror, first in his arms, and then when she realised she could hardly pierce his skin like that, she aimed for his face. No hesitation there. 

She did, in fact, manage to get a few good strikes at Nightwing, and god, did it hurt. The wounds weren’t that deep, but what they  _ were  _ was distracting. That’s why he had to start hitting the critical points of her body, but still, she didn’t seem phased. 

Not aside from the quiet wince he got out of her at the hardest hit at her ribcage. 

It was surprising that throughout the entire thing, he hadn’t actually started a conversation with her. He wasn’t sure what the reason was but was determined to try. If nothing else, he could maybe find out why she did what she did.

“What’s with the thieving? I’m sure you could manage to get money otherwise too,” he asked, jumping back to avoid getting hit with a piece of sharp mirror. He would rather not explain to Alfred why his face was covered in wounds the next time they met. After all, those were much more difficult to hide and were more likely to scar. 

The thief scowled. “Why should you care? You wouldn’t let me do it regardless of my reasons. Whether I did it for fun or because I had no other choice, or for some completely different reason, you’d still be here trying to fight me.”

“Yeah, but if it was just money you were after, I could help you find a legal way to get money after you’ve served your time.”

“No thanks.”

“What should I call you?”

“Not telling you.”

“Well, nice to meet you, Not Telling You, I’m Nightwing. Now, could you please hand the whatever it is you stole back? I could let you off the hook this time if you just did that.”

The thief’s frown deepened for a second before she sighed, though the sharpness and precision of her attacks didn’t lessen. 

“You can call me Haromonia Axyridis,” she told him, the blueness of her eyes shining as the light reflected in the mirror fragments hit them. Her eyes were so unnaturally blue, much deeper and clearer than any he’d seen on a human before, and if she hadn’t been a villain, he would have certainly found himself drawn into them. 

As it was, he couldn’t do that. He couldn’t  _ allow  _ himself that. 

“Haromonia? Like Harmony?”

“I can see the irony you might see here, you don’t need to individually point it out.”

And then she fell back, out of Nightwing’s sight for a moment, and Nightwing cursed himself. He knew that if he lost sight of Haromonia for longer than five seconds, he would lose her completely. And then he heard a yell behind him, turned around and keyed in on her again. 

She had a black broomstick with red spots in her hands. “Are you kidding me?” she asked, still looking at the broom. Then her eyes went around the area before her eyes zeroed in on his escrima sticks and she smiled. 

“Well, you know what, this is just perfect,” she said, her tone sounding final, and Nightwing had no idea what she was on about. Then just as he lunged towards her again, she broke the broom so that she only had the stick left. 

The stick that was suddenly starting to look a  _ lot  _ like a bo staff in an expert’s hands as she spun it in her hands before taking a fighting stance and waiting for Nightwing to attack first. He stopped like there was suddenly an invisible wall in front of him.

God damn it. 

Haromonia stood there, still waiting as a smile played on her lips, and Nightwing knew he had to make a move if he wanted to return the stolen object back to where she’d taken it from. He didn’t have a choice. 

Nightwing ran towards her and jumped, landing behind Haromonia. He hit her spine, then her lower back where her ribs ended. It didn’t take longer than that for her to turn around and aimed her stick at the side of his head before kicking him  _ hard _ in the solar plexus. It pushed the air out of him and he couldn’t breathe, which was surprising since his body armour should have protected him from that mostly. 

His theory that she had enhanced powers got definitely proven by that kick. As he fell to the ground, doubling over in pain because the hit had been hard, Haromonia used the chance and ran. With whatever she’d stolen. 

B was so not going to like this. Nor was Red Robin, as he’d been the one to help him find where Haromonia would be. 

Well, if nothing else, he now had a name to look up. 

And a beautiful thief with enchanting eyes to occupy his dreams.

For some reason, Nightwing had a feeling he was going to see a lot more of Haromonia later on. 

(He was right, just not in the way he thought, because only a few weeks later, he found the thief in his  _ kitchen _ complaining about the amount of cereal and the lack of proper ingredients.)

**Author's Note:**

> By the way, she stole a damn expensive bracelet. Just FYI.
> 
> Also, I'll happily answer questions you may have of the AU!
> 
> Do come scream at me on my [tumblr](https://ethelphantom.tumblr.com/) if you want to!


End file.
